Otter Race Night 2014 13 May 2014

The secret’s out, the mice weren’t real after all…
Seventy plus Otters, parents, friends and sponsors sat down for an evening of mice racing on Friday. Steve Rands, the compère for the evening, dressed in white shirt and bowtie, explained everything, the mice were auctioned off to each table and the betting began…

The pattern for the evening started early; it appeared that mouse No. 7 had been doing a bit of secret training and won the first three races. This was quickly resolved when the owners of the mouse kindly offered to auction her off to the highest bidder and, yes, the mouse became unsettled and never won again!

Spirits were high as we had to have a re-run of the Ladies’ race; there was a suspicion that a leading jockey was using the stick/whip incorrectly.

After a delicious supper to fuel both jockeys and supporters, the racing began again, ending with the Commodore’s Cup, Race Number Eight and the Champion of Champions race which was won in much style by Eddie Aspinall, who was certainly the form jockey all evening.

The impromptu Invitation Race, (the owners of the mice made up by those in the bar downstairs, who were wondering what was going on upstairs!) was won by owner Sir Richard, possibly by his spirited and enthusiastic cheering (indeed, is jumping allowed in the dining room?) Maybe we should have had that jurors’ enquiry after all….?

A great night was had by all with a huge ‘Thank you’ to the sponsors for helping make it a fabulous evening. A brilliant figure of £1071.60 was raised towards replacing one of the Otter Spotters.